Nowadays, though, do you know how many NBC shows I watch? One. That’s right, of my hours of boob-tube viewing each week, the only NBC series I regularly tune in is Tuesday night’s Parenthood. The network has practically fallen off my radar.

And I’m unlikely to spend more time with NBC, if it continues to make stupid decisions. Two years ago, the network tried to launch a remake of The Rockford Files, starring Dermot Mulroney. Fortunately, the project was
soon shelved.

Michael Caleo, who wrote Luc Besson’s upcoming Tommy Lee
Jones–Robert De Niro thriller Malavita, is working on a script for the Ironside
reboot, with Dave Semel (Person of Interest) attached to direct the pilot if
it’s ordered to production. We have no idea if producers plan to retain the very cool Quincy Jones theme
song, but as in the original, Detective Ironside will once again be a
sarcastic, sometimes-abrasive type who’s aided by a team of specialized experts
that help him solve the toughest cases. We’re tempted to call this House in a
wheelchair, but Ironside got there first--by about 40 years.

I have to admit, I’m somewhat less opposed to remaking Ironside after all these decades than I was to the Rockford revival. In the latter case, actor James Garner was so closely entwined with his role as a compassionate and perpetually
impecunious Los Angeles private eye, that I can’t imagine anyone else filling
those same shoes. (And no, the goofy Vince Vaughn won’t do the job any better in a theatrical translation of Rockford than the too-gentle Mulroney might have done in a small-screen revision.)

On the other hand, Burr’s Robert T. Ironside was a more surly sort, a chili-consuming spitter of TV-acceptable epithets (“flaming” being his favorite substitute for a certain other f-word). Because the character never struck me as reflective of the actor’s real personality, I can picture the part being taken by someone else--maybe Vincent D’Onofrio of Law & Order: Criminal Intent fame, or John Goodman. (I can even
see Willem Dafoe making
the Ironside role his own, though he’s mostly given television a wide berth
during his career.)

So I am not going to rail on at length here about the injustice of relaunching Ironside (although if, as the A.V. Club blog suggests, the network decides to turn Chief Ironside into a robot, I’ll be sharing with it some choice insults). I still think, however, that it’s idiotic and lazy for TV executives to keep trying to recapture the magic of once-popular programs. NBC has already failed with big-budget reboots of The Bionic Woman, Knight Rider, and The Munsters. Yet it has a rich history of coming up with creative concepts for programs and protagonists. Why can’t it take an honest shot at trying something fresh and risky once more? Or is that too much to ask of U.S. television in the 21st century?

5 comments:

Don't know what they'll do with Ironside, but I believe Mamet is supposed to be writing and directing a reboot of Paladin modern day?) and someone else was working on a modern day Cisco Kid -- young Afghan war vet returns to the barrio to right wrongs.

Me, i'm holding out for the ultimate mystery wheel: Cannon (but done like Lee Child's Reacher, a nomadic, enegmatic cat who goes by the one name) McCloud as the cowboy in the big city never gets old; Honey West, set in the late '70s; and Peter Gunn -- done in black and white a la the stylized Sin City.

And speakin gof Dermot Mulroney, did you see the SNL bit, "Is it Dylan McDermott or Dermot Mulroney?"

Oh I remember the NBC Mysteries - those were entertaining back in the day. I was a faithful Ironsides fan too, and I think your choice of Vincent D'onofrio to reprise the role is a good one. He could pull that off.

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